Jéssica (ela/dela)What's the weirdest argument you've gotten into with someone?
Wendy
HenriVolneyPeople trying to convince you that you are different than what you are is the funniest
I couldn’t think of a bad argument until I read your comment.
Back when Overwatch was pretty new, they just released Ana, an Egyptian support character. I was browsing the overwatch subreddit and people talked about how accurately the voice actors were in the game. All the characters come from different places and some of the voice lines are dubbed and some of them are in their native language. Anyway, people praised the accuracy and i said that might be true, but Mercy is from Switzerland, Zürich to be precise and her voice lines are german. To be really accurate, she should have swiss german voice lines. But the voice actress is german-american.
I thought that was a reasonable thing to point out, it wasn’t a complaint or anything, it was just that people called the voice lines 100% accurate and glazed blizzard for it.
People called me dumb and told me that i have no idea what i’m talking about. I told them that i live here, and i would probably know. Even after my “i literally live here” comment, people were like: i think people in Switzerland also speak german. Yes, i know, but they don’t just speak it for fun. They also speak french, Italian and romansh, but we’re talking about a woman who lives in Zürich, where i live. But i was still wrong apparently and people explained to me what language i speak aktually and why i’m wrong.
Someone once argued and kept insisting that I was a workaholic, despite me never being one.
There’s nothing worse than a workaholic in denial.
durinnSomeone on lemmy made a comment that basically said people dislike .ml for bad reasons, and I replied that I don’t like them bc I don’t like fans of regimes that would have me killed for being queer. He called me a liberal, I replied that I hate democrats at least as much as him, and he said “is it because they’re not killing Palestinians swiftly enough for you?” shit had me fuming, still kinda does tbh cx who the fuck calls someone a zionist for disliking the guys supporting zionist genocide??? (the answer is it was Ensign_Crab, fuck that leftist infighting weirdo. he prob only said I wanna kill Palestinians bc every right wing accusation is a confession)
What the hell??? That’s horrible…
It’s extra bewildering bc I always liked the takes of his I saw around Lemmy, being told I love genocide by another “lefty” felt 100x worse than any of the other weirdos who say things like that to strangers
Samskaranow kiss
tired_n_boredMost sane interaction with a .ml user
it’s just an emoticon, like :3 or xD, I use it when I find something amusing
Scubus
akari (she/they)people kept trying to convince me i was lesbian when i was straight as a younger teen. as it turns out, im bisexual
Bisexual lesbians are the best! Congrats on being you.
I’m usually the one who makes arguments wierd
Nice try P Diddy. I can’t get fooled again
Fight! Fight!
I got into a loud verbal altercation with a teacher at one point who insisted I was asleep while I was arguing with them.
TranquilTurbulenceOne coworker claimed that all seedless fruit are genetically modified. I explained that it’s just good old selective breeding. No fancy tech required, though gene editing can achieve the same result. I even pulled up the relevant Wikipedia article to back it up. His response? And I quote:
Wikipedia, it’s all lies.
That hit me like a mental blue screen of death. My brain froze for a solid few seconds before rebooting. Once I recovered, I realized I’d just witnessed what might be the dumbest argument I’ve ever heard in person.
At that point, I knew he was far beyond reason, so it was time to cut my losses. I let him keep his distorted worldview and steered the conversation toward less soul-crushing topics. It’s a coping strategy I’d learned a few years earlier: when you encounter people like that, you can either bang your head against the brick wall or simply walk around it. Once you realize it’s not a problem you can solve, it’s better to just avoid it.
I like to just respond with “Oh… ok.” And then stare at them for a massively uncomfortable amount of time. Really let them marinate in it. Even if they dont realise theyre being stupid, it makes them feel very awkward and hopefully pavlovs them into saying less dumb shit around me.
Gotta say, I love the semi-hostile energy of that approach. 😈
Selective breeding is genetic modification. That’s what makes the anger about the lab stuff so stupid. Sure, it isn’t natural, but neither is what we’ve been doing for thousands of years.
Yeah, well where do you draw the line though? When normies talk about something being GMO, it always involves fancy labs, modern biotechnology and greedy corporations.
When wolves were modified to become dogs, people were effectively practicing low-tech genetic manipulation, but people usually don’t think of it in those terms. Well, what about when the same thing happens without humans in charge of the process? Like, why do peacocks have such impressive tail feathers? Humans weren’t involved in that manipulation, so does it still count? It’s the peacocks themselves who did all the selective breeding and genetic manipulation.
What about when one species causes another to change? Just think of the relationship between orchids and hummingbirds for example. What about wasp-mimic flies or harmless snakes that look a lot like venomous ones? Surely, that’s a result of genetic manipulation too. This is getting completely ridiculous, so I guess we need to draw the line somewhere.
Yeah, I do think the lab kind should be in a different category, but it shouldn’t be shunned. It’s a new way to do an ancient thing. The biggest difference is that genes from one species (or designed ones) can’t get into a different one naturally (very frequently or easily —viruses can, but that’s pretty limited without humans managing it). Usually the genes need to be present in a population for them to be selected for. Either that, or caused by a random mutation, which decreases the rate this can happen.
It’s potentially dangerous, if it isn’t managed properly. It could introduce some issues that wouldn’t be with slower methods. However, it’s not a serious concern. It being modified in a lab doesn’t inherently make it harmful any more than all the other ways does. It’s just far more capable. It can solve some huge issues, and we shouldn’t shun it.
In biology, there are always exceptions. As you pointed out, viruses frequently mess around with genomes. Also, some bacteria can grab a plasmid from a completely different species of bacteria. Larger critters can’t pull off tricks like that, and that’s the group we usually think of.
Totally agree about gene editing being neutral. It’s just a tool like any other. That doesn’t make it good or evil. People who use it get to decide how it’s being used, and that’s the step where things can go wrong. It’s a powerful tool, so when used correctly, the results are life-changing. When mistakes are made, the price can be very high.
What about the terminology then? My previous examples are usually covered under evolution, not genetic manipulation, and I think intention is the key difference. Evolution happens on its own, while editing requires an intention.
What about the terminology then? My previous examples are usually covered under evolution, not genetic manipulation, and I think intention is the key difference. Evolution happens on its own, while editing requires an intention.
I think evolution also covers selective breeding, which is intentional too. The “natural” form is natural selection. I think “Genetic Engineering” is the best term for the lab process. It’s not ideal, because I’d argue selective breeding could still be argued to be genetic engineering, but it’s the most accurate I think that exists. Engineering does imply a certain amount of control that could be argued isn’t met by selective breeding. Genetically modified organism (GMO) is a horrible term, though that is probably the most common term for the lab process.
The worst conceivable argument: When someone tries to shut you down by claiming that “you’re always so combatative, why can’t you just let this go?”
My brother in Christ… you are arguing with me. You are probably being at least as combative as myself. Why can’t YOU just let this go? And of course, if you do anything other than let them have their way, they take that as proof that you never let anything pass.
My colleague doesn’t believe in Einstein and his discoveries. I said that things like spacetime and the relativity of time were in fact proved but he insisted they were all lies. He doesn’t even believe that the speed of light is the fastest thing ever because it’ll be proved only when we’ll go that fast in first person loool
It’s like an expansion pack for flat earthers.
spittingimageI was working telephone company helpdesk. A customer called in demanding that I raise the priority of their ticket so the serviceman (who was in their house already) would finish the work faster. I made the mistake of trying to explain that’s not how it works.
TheOrcWhoWritesSomeone once tried to convince me that I can bypass the security on their bank account so they could get in. And I had to keep coming back with, “That’s not how this works”. I ended up resetting his password and spending half an hour trying to help him get in.
_haha_oh_wow_I had someone tell me I was full of shit and a coward for suggesting a full face helmet and protective gear for downhill skating (for reference, DH skating can get you traveling at highway speeds). They were talking about if you wore a helmet, a regular park helmet would be totally fine because they’re designed for skateboarding falls.
I tried to explain that park skating and DH are two totally different things, which need different gear and skills, but they just kept doubling down on their crazy bullshit. It was either a troll or an insane person but either way, I regret wasting my time on their bullshit. Hopefully the person we were trying to help just ignored their stupid ass. I should really stop going to reddit…
The Velour Fog Most recent one: A dude in a chatroom was glazing MrBeast and spreading misinformation that he was this selfless philanthropist. I linked a bunch of articles from NBC, CBS, and CNBC about various controversies and scandals involving MrBeast being a POS in the past five years or so. He said “you can’t trust any info that comes from a .com domain.”
Flails
Someone stated in a Reddit post that being a hero requires that person to take an action that requires self sacrifice. I replied that, if this was the case, the people who fought back on Flight 93 weren’t heroes because they were talking a selfish action in fighting back.
There were a lot of knee jerk reasons to that.
OneWomanCreamTeamAn action can benefit you in one way and still require self sacrifice. I would add that the action must benefit more than just yourself in order to qualify as heroic though.
I worked at Office Depot. I had a customer call in and ask how much the lawn mower tires cost. Told them he has the wrong store, we don’t sell them and then proceeded to hear him bitch me out about how I don’t want to do my job and help him.
cyberfaeWhen we were kids and on holidays, my parents got into a really heated argument about the name of a jam’s brand. My mom “it’s Hero!”, dad " no, it’s Delicia!". They were both so adamant, it put a real damp on the entire vacation. Finally back home they went straight to the pantry to check out the name of the jam that was called Hero Delicia. Yeah… that was dumb.
Pre-internet era debates were the best!
I spent almost two decades as a game developer and many of those years were spent developing professional lottery products.
I argued with a buddy for over 5 years about the gamblers fallacy and various other aspects to do with probabilities.
See, in his mind, he could somehow claim to understand the underlying statement that past events are not a predictor of future events… but he’s still insisted that if he monitored the patterns, he could somehow break through this truth.
I could never get through to him that there was no system. You’re just fucking gambling dude. Zero progress… and I refused after a while to discuss anything to do with probabilities.
We’re not going to argue about that sir. This is not a Wendy’s.
But we will be fighting about it, because you just stepped in a Waffle house. Have at thee!
AngryDeuceWas playing a board game (I dont even remember which) and I had to give the name of a tropical place that starts with letter M that no one else would guess. I said Manila and this person I was playing with argued with me for 20 minutes (this was pre smartphone) that Manila isn’t tropical. I had to seriously find a book with a world map in it to show this person where the Philippines are located to prove that it is, indeed, tropical and honestly she was still unconvinced.
I played it off but I lost a lot of respect for my then girlfriend, who I was with, because I know she knew I was right but wouldn’t defend me because she didn’t want to take sides against her other friends. That was honestly the beginning of the end for us, that stupid fucking game night I didnt want to go to anyway lol
Hi, I’m from Manila. It’s actually snowing here right now.
/s This shit ass place is so hot and humid, I’m like a soggy paper towel
yeah i aint built for that shit lol
theres a reason i live in the land of always winter
hansolo
I Cast FistHad a RPG colleague try and argue that getting data on TV viewers’ habits was more reliable than what Netflix could have on their own users, because “[Netflix] doesn’t know whether the person is actually sitting down and watching, or sleeping on the couch”. I couldn’t get through his thick skull that TV viewers’ habits aren’t magically measured, only a small percentage of homes, usually only in the largest metropolitan city no less, have (or had, in the past) some specific equipment that tracked which channels were being viewed, while any internet service can get super accurate info on their users.
How would anyone know whether tv viewers were actually watching or just sleeping either?
“Because the people had to be awake to change channels, so you could tell” - I recall him saying something along these lines
I’ve lived in communities with deathtrap jails stocked full of kids and people on detainment and the people in those communities act like its normal and get weird when you are mad about it.
It’s about as uncanny as Stephen Kings’ “Derry” or whatever metaphor you can imagine. People just pretend they aren’t being constantly threatened with violent imprisonment, like their kids are free.
starlingukDNA tests can’t prove nationality. Your DNA test can’t have proven you’re Polish. Your grandparents can, of course.
Anyway, a girl was complaining she had a bit of a tummy. I told her that’s perfectly natural and another girl told me that she has a flat stomach and that I made her feel insecure.
My friend at the time watched some documentary about chess computers (Deep Blue etc.) and was telling me about the “super advanced algorithm called Brute Force”. I told him that brute force is means trying every possible combination, is the least efficient approach, and does not generally work for chess. He was adamant it was some genius algorithm. The only time in my life I remember saying “I have a computer science degree, I know what I am talking about”.